BEST-SELLING Greenock author Cathy MacPhail was announced today as winner of another literary award.

It is the third time she has won a Scottish Children’s Book Award.

Cathy clinched the older readers category for her young adult thriller Mosi’s War, which is set in Glasgow and explores the terrifying world of child soldiers.

She previously won in 2006 for Roxy’s Baby and in 2010 for Grass.

Cathy said: “I’m absolutely delighted to have won the Scottish Children’s Book Award again.

“There are so many awards now for children’s books, and all of them worthy, but for me, this is the best because it is all down to the children.

“If you can write a book that captures their imagination, keeps them turning the pages, keeps them reading, then you have won the lottery. All I have ever wanted to do is write rattling good stories that children will enjoy, and this very special award makes me think I must be doing something right.” Each winning book receives £3,000 in what is Scotland’s largest book prize for children’s authors and illustrators.

Cathy was born and grew up in Greenock, where she still lives.

Her first children’s book, Run, Zan, Run, won the 1994 Kathleen Fidler Award for new Scottish Writing. She went on to win many other prizes, including a Scottish Arts Council Book Award for Fighting Back.

Cathy is currently Patron of Reading at Falkirk High School and an Ambassador for the Children First charity.